the topic for illustration friday this week is surrender. my first thought was to do something more suggestive or passionate but ambiguously so. i thought if i depicted someone’s hand tightly gripping someone else’s hand that might depict surrender if the other hand were limp. at the same time, a tight grip on someone else might suggest conflict as well, where people tend to surrender. and, according to hollywood, conflicts that begin like this, seem to somehow end up in the extreme surrender of pants coming off.

but with what is going on in egypt right now, that just got me thinking about conflict in general. these things seem to seldom resolve in stalemates and only one side seems to ever benefit and that’s only if the conflict comes to a close. that last little tidbit got me thinking about the the never-ending feud between israel and palestine. it seems so much more extreme considering neither side seems willing to surrender or back down. i’m not very versed in the history of that conflict or even the present state but it doesn’t seem to me that either side is tremendously “stronger.” it seems like someone will have to let go to end the cycle.